They proudly take credit for striking in the night, often torching
homes, schools and workplaces. Even now, as the nation struggles
back from the vicious attacks on the World Trade Center and the
Pentagon, they continue to boast of their assaults, recruit others
to join them and offer training in how to use arson and elude
the authorities.

They call themselves ELF. On their web site, www.earthliberationfront.com,
they take credit for over 30 acts of terrorism over the last six
years, inflicting millions of dollars in damage.1

ELF stands for the Earth Liberation Front, which, along with
its sister organization, the Animal Liberation Front (ALF), commits
its crimes in the name of "environmentalism."

Their most recent attack claimed by ELF came on September 8,
just three days before terrorists slammed planes into the World
Trade Center and the Pentagon. ELF and ALF are suspected of burning
a McDonald's restaurant in Tucson, Arizona and spray painting
"ELF" and "ALF" on it.2

This prompted what police are calling a copycat vandalism attack
on a Ronald McDonald House for seriously ill children in Tucson,
just seven days after the Trade Center and Pentagon carnage, according
to the Ronald McDonald House's spokesperson, Denisa Casement.
There, swastikas, "ELF," "ALF" and anti-fast
food graffiti were scrawled on a life-size statue of Ronald McDonald.

Casement said she now lives in fear for the safety of the unfortunate
families who stay at the house while their children are undergoing
treatment for life-threatening diseases. "These people [ELF
and ALF] have to understand," Casement said, "that they
set the example for others and are just as responsible as if they
had done this themselves."3

On its website ELF directly encourages others to participate
in terrorism.

The ELF website offers several publications. "Setting
Fires With Electrical Timers - An Earth Liberation Front Guide"
is one. They say it provides "the politics and practicalities
of arson. Down-to-earth advice and how-tos about devices, fuel
requirements, timers, security and more."

"If an Agent Knocks" is another publication offered
by ELF. ELF advertises it as "What to do if a federal agent
tries to question you, the scoop on agencies that gather political
intelligence, how the feds infiltrate political organizations
and much more." In this context, "political organizations"
appears to mean terrorist organizations like ELF.

While these terrorists are small-time compared to the terrorists
who struck the World Trade Center and the Pentagon and are not
known to have killed anyone as yet, they appear to be intent on
expanding their violence and putting American lives at risk.

Earlier this year, ELF claimed to have expanded its operations
to enable it to strike two targets in a single night. The group
claimed that on May 21, "The research office of Toby Bradshaw
was reduced to smoke and ashes. We attacked his office at the
University of Washington while at the same time another group
set fire to a related target [an office and 13 trucks burned at
the Jefferson Poplar Farms] in Clatskanie, Oregon."4

Over the years, the frequency of attacks ELF has taken credit
for has dramatically increased from just two in 1996 to nine last
year, including attacks in Rhinelander, Wisconsin, Shoals, Indiana,
Niwot, Colorado and three in Bloomington, Indiana. Then they moved
to the state of New York to hit Middle Island, Miller Place and
Mount Sinai to wrap up the year on December 30. Six of the nine
attacks were arsons.5

The organization has claimed credit for seven attacks already
this year.

ELF first gained national attention in 1998 with a $12 million
dollar arson blaze at a ski resort under construction near Vail,
Colorado.6

FBI sources say under current law the maximum penalty for these
crimes is only a $10,000 fine - a penalty so light as to make
investigation and prosecution almost a waste of time.

Representative George Nethercutt of Washington is now seeking
to change that. He has revised and reintroduced his Agroterrorism
Prevention Bill, H.R. 2795, which stiffens the minimum penalty
to five years and provides for the death penalty when acts of
ecoterrorism cause loss of life.7

A Nethercutt aide said the congressman might succeed in attaching
his bill to the broader international terrorism bill now being
drafted.

This kind of legislation would be a welcome advance in fighting
home grown terrorists as the nation goes to war with those from
overseas.